A Blog by Gayathri Sankar J
Lucy had only been ten years old when her most favourite person in the world had passed away.
It was a Thursday morning and little Lucy was meticulously arranging the pieces on the chessboard, sitting on the living room couch and talking excitedly to herself about how she was going to beat her playmate.
Lucy and her grandmother Marie were best friends, and they would do practically everything together. Be it cooking, doing the laundry, or even dusting the house, Lucy loved it when they did all of it together. Her grandmother was the best company, and today she would finally beat her in the ultimate chess game. As soon as she arrives from the market.
Lucy patiently waited at home, occasionally glancing out of the living room to see when her Marie would arrive. She vaguely registered the sound of the house phone ringing inside, and noticed her mother pick up the phone and respond. She watched as her mother’s face slowly fell into shock and her calm face twisted into worry.
Despair slowly crept into her gut and her eyes started to water during her whole journey to the hospital, her mother tightly holding onto her slightly shaky body. The rest of the days passed with blurred memories of the doctor shaking his head while he talked to her parents, a body covered in white cloth being moved away from the doors, the black lace of her pretty dress that hid the storm inside her, convincing her to stop the priest from lowering her Marie six feet into the ground.
15 years later
Lucy was in the kitchen, wistfully looking out of the windows, while she slowly stirred the contents of the pot on the stove. She sighed heavily, thinking about nothing in particular, other than the fact that she had to make a particularly complicated dish that her husband liked very much.
That dish had also been her grandmother’s favourite.
She shook her head from the thoughts straying towards Marie. Her husband’s birthday was not the day she should be focusing on such things.
She moved away from the pot and began to slice the vegetables on the cutting board, when she vaguely registered a figure behind her. Thinking that it was her husband coming towards her, she didn’t bother turning around when she said “Hey I’m gonna need a few more hours to prepare this. I’m so sorry to make you wait, I just want it to be perfect.” She heard nothing in response, but regardless, she continued cutting the big pile of vegetables in front of her. As she was moving the knife, she felt somebody’s cold hands guiding hers to where the vegetables were. She heard someone’s voice say “You’re cutting them wrong. They’ll take ages to cook if you do it that way.” Her knife clattered loudly to the floor. She turned around.
It was her grandmother in front of her, looking at her fondly and saying, “Would you like me to help?”
“Wha- gramma, how, you- but you- I saw you-“, she shrieked, her words threatening to choke her throat.
She saw her husband coming into the kitchen from the living room and felt his hands shaking her shoulders, his face worried and curious. She did not pry her eyes away from her grandmother while she slowly pointed her finger in front of her. Her husband followed her finger and whispered, “What is it Lucy, are you okay? Did you see something?”
Lucy turned to look at her husband, her body still frozen in shock, while everything happened in slow motion around her. “You- see? She is- I dont know how- she- you don’t- I don’t-“
Her body felt stiff and she continued to stare in front of her, not registering her worried husband next to her anymore.
Days turned into weeks, and John grew intensely worried about his wife sitting every day in the living room, wide-eyed and unmoving. She had mumbled something incoherent when he had tried to talk to her, and found it hard to make her move, eat or even go to the bathroom to freshen up. She would sleep light every night on that same couch, and she refused to even look him in the eye when he kneeled in front of her, in hopes that someday she will talk to him properly. It seemed like everyday morning she would talk to someone he never sees, and sometimes he would notice her touching her wrist when nobody is watching.
Can you guess what disorder Lucy is experiencing? And what symptoms have been mentioned?
Answer: Schizophrenia.
Symptoms- Hallucinations (tactile, visual and auditory), Disorganised/Incoherent Speech, Catatonia, Impairments in social relationships.
Persisting for a period of one month or more.
-Gayathri Sankar J